Reviews

When the album kicks off with a tune entitled “Case of the Mundes,” you know the music is headed into an exploration and celebration of modern banjo sounds and when the other pickers include Sierra Hull, Bryan Sutton, Mike Bub, Justin Moses, and Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, you know the music is going to fly.  Just when…

Bandmates John Showman and Chris Coole have been digging deep into the old-time sound of fiddle and banjo for more than twenty years, and their traditional credentials have only increased over time. Anyone who has followed the band in recent years knows that they have never been content to stay in their lane, as it…

Gena Britt, who brings a long, impressive resume to the recording studio — she’s a multi-IBMA winner with top-of-the-game Sister Sadie—steps out for highly regarded personal projects and is in demand for fill-ins and studio work. Her new project, Streets, Rivers, Dreams & Heartaches, adds yet another checkmark to that career that’s solid and fun…

In the twenty tracks that make up Bloom Again, Allie Jean Burbrink plays guitar, banjo, mandolin, bass, fiddle, and sings her way through a wonderful array of traditional and original music with a beautiful intimacy and honesty. This is all natural, honest-to-goodness back porch music.  For an album where one artist is doing all the…

From the vibrant bluegrass scene of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, comes Trish Imbrogno with five stellar tracks on a new EP. Imbrogno, trained as a classical bassist, expanded her musical world to include bluegrass and roots music and has become an in-demand, well-respected, in-the-pocket bassist playing with an array of top pickers.  Joining Trish, who plays bass…

Let’s face it—Larry Sparks could cut an album where he sings the ingredient labels for Oreos, peanut butter, and his favorite barbecue rub, and bluegrass fans would set it on repeat and let it ride for an afternoon. And it would be good. And so Sparks, who doesn’t seem to desire to slow down, has…